The Indian Novel and the State

This panel will take up the question of state power as it relates to the aesthetics of the 20th- and 21st-century Indian novel. How do the form and content of the novel inform our understanding of Indian political histories as they emerge from the encounters between the state and its others? In seeking an answer to this question, this panel will attempt to understand the literary discourse of state-led development and its aesthetic claims as they come into contact with counter-discursive forms of identity and belonging. Possible topics include but are not limited to: the postcolonial bildungsroman, the role of autobiography in nationalist discourse, national realism, and subaltern imaginings of the state.